Fayetteville, AR –-(Ammoland.com)- The American political debate today reminds me of the Abbott and Costello baseball routine. We’re using the same language, but we bring our own experiences and interpretations to the conversation to end up talking past each other.
The latest example of this is the fight over using 3-D printers to make firearms. Alyssa Milano, a Twitter celebrity, among some other things, is once again wading into the battle, having written an opinion piece, titled, “A 3D printed gun is downloadable death,” for CNN. It’s too easy here to use the comment by George Bernard Shaw about actors that as long as they speak his lines clearly, the meaning will come through, but she should ask her agent to find a better script for her.
According to Milano, domestic abusers will be able to print out guns that are fully functional and undetectable, guns that cannot be traced as they cross borders into states like Massachusetts or New Jersey, and that soon enough the process will be within the budget of this hypothetical abuser.
Where to begin? At present, 3-D printing of guns is on the level of heavier-than-air aviation in the early days. An airplane has flown for some seconds. H.G. Wells has written a novel, titled, The War in the Air, but where things are heading is all speculation. To come back out of the analogy, a 3-D printed gun is at present a potential plastic pipe bomb while also being a proof of concept. Milano is right that technology gets cheaper by the day, and she’s right to anticipate working guns coming out of something that looks a lot like a Federation replicator in a few years.
What she doesn’t realize, apparently, is that making guns at home that you don’t intend to sell is legal—under federal law, anyway—and has been possible for mechanically incline people for century.
The concern at the heart of Milano’s article is that the government won’t be able to control the production of guns, but her script writer ought to think the matter through. Distributed power is exactly what a free society is about.
This is not just about gun rights. It’s not even primarily so, since we’re not talking about gun transfers, but the exchange of ideas. This is in fact much more of a First Amendment case, the rights of speech and the press being the ones under attack.
As I’ve noted for a long time, people who hate one right generally hate more than one. The ability to share information is a fundamental right. And to counter an objection that I expect, we’re not talking about designs for nuclear weapons. That would be the proprietary work of government agencies, not something that the creator of the design is willing to share for free.
In any case, both the designs for nuclear weapons and for guns are already widely available. Milano may as well try to restrict access to information on making fire or knapping flint. The technology is out there, and barring social collapse, it’s not going away. Milano’s article raises important questions—whose speech is acceptable, what does the Second Amendment mean, and does anyone know where 3-D printing will go—but she demonstrates that she has no particular knowledge or skill to find the answers.
I, for one, won’t be charmed into signing over a blank check to her work against rights.
I always check with celebrities for their thoughts on medical advice, lifestyle guidance, quantum physics, religion, solving calculus problems, philosophical quandaries and ethical questions.
These Commiewood liberals are worse than Chicken Little. They come out screaming to the top of their lungs every time they are prompted to by their puppetmaster. They are a pathetic bunch of idiots that have no knowledge about the things that they fear so much.
There is a point where technology cannot be stopped, where regulation only creates black markets with which honest folks are forced to do business. 3d printers for guns are past that threshhold.
@A.X.P. Heck, we ignore them, now, but legislatures will keep legislating. Executives will keep ordering. Bureaucrats will keep making regulations “with the force and effect of law”. Prosecutors will keep prosecuting. How do we get rid of those?
Cyanide? I hear that works quite well on varmints…
@Joe, Yes, varmints! Bureauvarmints! Prosevarmints! I would call the new product … “Varmicutor”. Comes in the handy five gallon civic duty size!
And 55-gallon drums, for particularly nasty nationwide infestations of all types and species of Democravarmints
owned firearms for 50 years…carried in military… had a “ghost gun” in looney California but disassembled due to new law that says I have to put serial # on it and register it… don’t know about these plastic guns… not sure about the need… BUT… if we allow them to stop it …it will just be one more step on the road to registration and eventual confiscation… I will NEVER give up my firearms…. Anti-Gunners are smart..not dumb… and NOT interested in any logical conversation… they want to get rid of all firearms in the hands of citizens… and they… Read more »
Poor Ms Milano is a star in the TV show CHARMED. In one episode she played a mermaid. I saw her two best parts.
It is not now – and it never has been – possible to manufacture a reliable, multi-use firearm entirely out of plastics. No non-metallic materials (plastics, epoxies, resins, etc) exist that have the necessary combination of tensile strength, shock resistance, and resistance to high temperature/pressure with which to manufacture a complete firearm that can reliably be used multiple times.
The concept of an “undetectable” firearm (a real-world practical one, at least) is an outright lie… a simple scare tactic.
Do you not know that in 1988 a law passed that you can not own any firearm that was undetable.
I see this as more of a First Amendment issue. The Anti-Civil Rights elitist crowd is attacking the First Amendment with the same arguments that they use on the Second Amendment. To include: “You don’t need to know that.” ” That should not be published for public safety.” “It is a common sense regulation” “There will be blood in the streets. People will go wild. If only one person would be saved.” So let us envision a United States where one can only buy one gun per month and post only one communication per month. The National Communications Act. The… Read more »
Wild Bill,envision living in shit hole n.j. 2018 where we can only buy one handgun a month with a paid permit and an asshole gun hater governor passing 5 new gun grabbing laws in his first 6 months of office.Stay tuned !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Well, it is a plastic barrel! Back in the good old days,we had zip guns.Basically the criminals,the poor ones,mostly younger gang types,would take a toy gun,add a heavy spring and nail to the trigger and try to shoot a 22 lr out the barrel.Most often not working.I don’t see these as much better….one shot one chance.Much easier to assemble a weapon with metal parts! So sleep soundly,paranoiacs, the world is not coming to an end over these plastic weapons
Actually you’re WAY behind the times but that’s okay. There is advanced technology that is working on infusing aluminum in the plastic for the materials used in 3D printing! Absolutely amazing. The only catch, at this point, is that the printer costs about $100,000 and they’re in the testing faze. Now, back to guns. Cody Wilson did, I believe, print an AR lower that actually worked and there’s a video of him using it with a 32 or 56 snail drum (eh, could be wrong on the capacity, who cares). It worked great! The point is gun control, because of… Read more »
The Ghost Gunner CNC’s are slow! There is a company (5D tactical) that makes a jig that is used with a router that does it fast and an outstanding job and for a faction of the price of the ghost gunner. By the way, there is a backlog because the Ghost Gunner was plagued with problems and suffered numerous delays. I bought one in the first run 9several years ago) and got tired of waiting (5 extra months) and cancelled my order – best decision ever because I saved $1500 by buying the 5D tactical jig. You could have bought… Read more »
It depends on what you like. The jig you use requires you to do all the work. The new Ghost Gunner is a true “plug and play”. Put the 80% lower in, turn it on and leave it. Plus it doesn’t have nearly the mess that jigs/routers etc have when it comes to constantly lubricating the bits.
All that said, you get what you like and if you like that product great. I’m in no hurry and hated the damn mess and loved the fact that the Ghost Gunner was self contained.
the 3d lower you refer to does work well but the designer stated it’e life span was about 1500 to 200 rounds then it was no longer viable…
Here is a sample of what many DemocRATs do to the Republicans. This is how comments are changed to fit the agenda. “According to Milano, domestic abusers will be able to print out guns that are fully functional and undetectable, guns that cannot be traced as they cross borders into states like Massachusetts or New Jersey, and that soon enough the process will be within the budget of THIS – (changed to capitals) hypothetical – (would be deleted) abuser . Thus with the change of ONE word, and/or OMISSION of ONE word – – the MEANING of the comment is… Read more »
Why would a domestic abuser need to manaufacture a gun and smuggle it across state lines in order to harm her husband or kids?
Please correct me if I am wrong but I read an article a couple of years ago that stated a plastic gun could not handle the heat and force of a bullet discharge. What are the facts behind actually trying to shoot with one of these guns?
My understanding is that they could fire a single shot before self destructing. The focus is now using metals rather than plastic to print the parts.
Lets not forget 1) that ammo can be “loaded”/ “reloaded” specifically to fire from these weapons 2) that these weapons are NOT designed for anything other than one time use/ self defense 3) That criminals will not waste time making them because of their limited use and the expensive machines used to make them (which are also too complicated for most LOW IQ criminals to operate – remember criminals are not mensa candidates, they’re stupid like Melissa Milano), especially when they can very cheaply buy or steal a gun that holds several rounds and can be reused.
Rattlerjake you are right on. The whole “fight” here is against law-abiding citizens and has always been. Criminals don’t follow any laws they don’t want to. Stealing good, reusable guns is definitely more their style, because as you said they are not very bright which is usually why they turned to crime.
Using metal? Doesn’t that defeat the “won’t be detectable by airport scanners”? I happen to work at an airport and go through a metal detector and my lunch bag goes through a luggage scanner. The metal detector goes off when I forget to put my wallet thru the luggage scanner due to the chips in my credit cards. and if I forget to take my cell phone earbuds or charger chord out of the bag they make me open my bag, thus holding up everyone else trying to go to work too! This whole topic of printable guns is a… Read more »
What is the firing pin made of? plastic? Are the cartridges made of plastic, too?
Plastics technology is a growing industry. New polymers are being developed on a regular basis with specific goals in mind such as chemical resistivity, ability to deform and return to shape and strength. I could easily imagine a plastic that could withstand the explosive forces of a small caliber cartridge. How many times? Good question.
3D printing is not restricted only to plastics. 3D printers that use laser fusion to fuse metal dust into solid parts has been around for years. These machines and materials are getting cheaper every year. Also, pistols for 3D printing that utilize steel barrels can be designed, too.
Be great to make a gun for every room in the house!
How will the plastic gun, with a fused metal barrel pass across a state border? Maybe like an old wooden stocked, steel barrel, gun like GunPa, er, Grand Pa used to shoot . . . Of course, I have not heard that NJ had metal detectors set up on each and every highway, secondary road, street, alley, sidewalk, trail, game trail, un-fenced field, etc., that a criminal or US Citizen might use to transport those firearms, which may, according to US Law, pass THROUGH all states if properly cased unloaded to its ultimate destination. I wonder if one used one… Read more »